Firm Profiles

15 Young Firms to Watch: SsD, Cambridge, Mass.

Verbatim

ssd - Jinhee Park

“Out of all the types of building, the impact of the client’s involvement is critical in residential projects. We are always excited to draw out unexpected exciting design solutions through the collaboration with clients.”

“We were in our mid 30’s [when we got the commission for the Big Dig house] and the potential client had jogged by one of our jobsites and saw our sign (this is the way we get most of our local work oddly enough). We started the project not as a house, but as a research project on the potential of the materials. Even today, we think of the project as not just strictly residential, but a concept that can be used for any programs like libraries, schools, etc.”

“We are interested in salvaging, but have expanded our thoughts on sustainability to passive energy and larger issues of the environment. We are looking more at the sustainability as a larger system rather than just one time recycling.”

Early in their practice when clients asked Jinhee Park, AIA, and John Hong, AIA, LEED AP, to design a house with 600,000 pounds of steel and concrete salvaged from Boston’s Big Dig highway project, the duo produced an aggressive yet beautiful 4,300-square-foot home that was widely published. It’s the kind of out-of-the box sustainable thinking upon which the young firm built its reputation.

With offices in New York, Boston, and Seoul, Korea, SsD has moved on to bigger projects, but it still applies the same logic to its work. “We started [Big Dig] not as a house, but as a research project on the potential of the materials,” Park says.

SsD is working on micro-unit housing in Seoul, an early education center, and a vegetarian food network with hubs, restaurants, and food trucks, but residential work is important to the firm. “The impact of the client’s involvement is critical in residential projects,” Park explains. “We are always excited to draw out unexpected exciting design solutions through the collaboration with clients.”